Bremen Waffle House

[wobbler1957]

Nope, nope, sausage and such like was smoked or salted, perfectly good and noble ways of preserving meat. Both methods reduce the amount of moisture in the meat, which makes it not so hospitable to the bacteria that'll kill you. Salt in and of itself is a great disinfectant.

Sage and stuff was added to flavor the meat.

But I'll give you that people nowadays are much more susceptible to infections from silly stuff, because they're so worried about everything being clean. A little dirt never hurt anyone -- unless of course it was Clostridium spp., which cause gangrene...

People died a whole lot more back in the day from bad food, too... I've transcribed the Mortality Censuses for Georgia for the years they're available, and people died from some crazy stuff. Epistaxis -- people died from nosebleeds!! Or falling into the fireplace, which was really common. People "overlaid" their babies -- they rolled onto them in bed and smothered them. And they died from eating "poorly smoked meat" or "bad salted meat".

It was a rough old world about 100 years ago. On the whole, I'd rather be living now. At least I won't die from a nosebleed.

[MSO4]

wobbler1957 wrote:

Nope, nope, sausage and such like was smoked or salted, perfectly good and noble ways of preserving meat. Both methods reduce the amount of moisture in the meat, which makes it not so hospitable to the bacteria that'll kill you. Salt in and of itself is a great disinfectant.
Sage and stuff was added to flavor the meat.
But I'll give you that people nowadays are much more susceptible to infections from silly stuff, because they're so worried about everything being clean. A little dirt never hurt anyone -- unless of course it was Clostridium spp., which cause gangrene...
People died a whole lot more back in the day from bad food, too... I've transcribed the Mortality Censuses for Georgia for the years they're available, and people died from some crazy stuff. Epistaxis -- people died from nosebleeds!! Or falling into the fireplace, which was really common. People "overlaid" their babies -- they rolled onto them in bed and smothered them. And they died from eating "poorly smoked meat" or "bad salted meat".
It was a rough old world about 100 years ago. On the whole, I'd rather be living now. At least I won't die from a nosebleed.

Did you know sausage is actually derived from latin meaning salt?

[wobbler1957]

Yep. Latin salsus "salted" --> salsicus "seasoned with salt" --> salsica "sausage" --> Old French saucisse "sausage" --> Old Norse French saussiche "sausage" --> Old English sawsyge

It's a noble meat with a long history. Tasty too!! Om nom nom nom...